


The Nanny

by bjfic_archivist



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon, Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-07-16
Updated: 2008-07-10
Packaged: 2018-12-27 02:35:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12071862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bjfic_archivist/pseuds/bjfic_archivist
Summary: Justin is a college freshman looking for a job. When he meets his new employer, he may get more than he bargained for! Dedicated to A., who should know why.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note from IrishCaelan, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Brian_Justin_Fanfiction_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in September 2017. I posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bjfic/profile).

Justin Taylor needed a job. He was, in fact, desperate for one. So there was no way he was going to hit on his new potential employer, no matter how tempted he was.

And boy, was he tempted.

When he'd answered the ad in Pittsburgh Out looking for a night nanny, he had expected some nice, middle-aged dyke. Not this, this lithe, sexy, manly, dangerous creature who looked like he could eat Justin up or tear him apart just as easily.

So here he sat across the counter from Brian Kinney, answering questions about his work history and handing over a copy of his references. Small tasks that were a lot harder when all he could think about was how much he wanted to lean over and . . . well, it was best not to complete that thought.

"So I'd need you here every night but Sundays and Wednesdays. You'd show up at 7 in the evening. I'll be home by 5 a.m., so you can leave as early as you need. Would your class schedule interfere with any of that?"

"No, no, that would be fine. my classes always let out by 4, so that will give me plenty of time."

"Good. Gus eats dinner at 6:30, so you shouldn't have to worry about that. I won't be heading out right at seven anyway, it depends on the night, but you should always be here by then in case I have to go. I usually let him watch TV for a while after dinner, or one of his fucking Disney movies that he's seen a million times, so then you'd only have to give him a bath and put him to bed by 9. Then you could do homework, or watch TV or whatever. The spare bed is in Gus's room."

"That would be fine." Justin was curious about Brian and the whole situation. He wanted to know what Brian did, where Gus's mother was, how Gus had come to live in a place that, by the decor, was definitely not designed with a little kid in mind. But there was something in Brian's manner that stopped him from asking. He wasn't intimidating, exactly. Or rather, he *was*, but that wouldn't have stopped Justin. But there was something in the older man's manner that told Justin he wasn't about to share any information not directly pertaining to the job.

So he didn't ask. He just sat there, answered the questions, and pretended he wasn't picturing Brian naked.

Presently, Brian ran out of things to ask. He shuffled Justin's papers in his hands, looked over them a few times, then looked up and, with what looked like a small, but genuine smile, said, "Everything looks good. Your experience is impressive, and your situation would be perfect. If all your references check out, I'll want you to start right away. Would you be available tomorrow night?"

Justin was a little surprised, and more than a little flattered that this totally self-assured man seemed to have confidence in him already. He blushed a little, but covered quickly, saying, "Yes, of course. Tomorrow is fine. I'm eager to get started." He smiled.

"Alright," Brian said, standing and starting to show him to the door, "I'll give you a call tomorrow and we'll work out all the details."

"Sounds perfect," Justin said, standing by the door and extending his hand. "Thank you for considering me, and I'll hope to hear from you tomorrow, then." Brian reached out to shake his hand. Justin felt tingly as Brian's warm, dry skin moved across his own. He suppressed a shiver.

Brian, however, looked perfectly composed as he said, "Tomorrow," and firmly shut the door behind him.

Justin stood in the hallway for a moment, staring at the door. Then he shook head and started down the stairs. Wait until he told Daphne about his new boss!


	2. The Nanny

'Way to make an impression on your first day of work,' Justin couldn't help telling himself as he knocked on the heavy door at 7:05. His only hope was that Brian wouldn't notice. He nervously smoothed down the front of his jacket, still damp from the drizzle outside.

"You're late." Brian had noticed.

"I know, I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Justin eyed his new boss

"Don't be sorry, be on time," He said, a little sharply.

"I will."

Brian walked in, gesturing for Justin to follow. Justin couldn't tell if his new boss was really mad or not. "Come in and meet Gus."

Justin did, and after the brief introduction, the four-year-old turned back to his talking fish movie and Brian walked off to his bedroom, admonishing Gus over his shoulder that he only had one more hour, then it was bath time whether he liked it or not. Justin, still feeling a little awkward, but at least on familiar ground (and less unsettled without Brian in the room), sat down on the couch.

"Is this your favorite movie?" He asked Gus.

"No, this is my third favorite," Gus answered, never taking his eyes off the screen.

"What are your first two favorites," Justin asked, eyeing the DVD collection on the shelves.

"First is The Lion King, and second is Totoro and The Mommy Movie."

"You have two second favorites?"

Gus paused for a moment, the said, "Yeah."

"What's The Mommy Movie?" After five years of babysitting and nannying, Justin was sure he knew every kids movie title.

"It's the best movie!" Gus actually turned away from the screen to make his point. "Sometimes it's my number one favorite. But we don't have the DVD of it, so I can only watch it on the other TV."

"What's it about?"

"It's about my mommies, and even I'm in it. But I'm just a little baby."

"Your mommies?" Justin was feeling out of his depth in this conversation.

Gus nodded solemnly. "They died."

"Oh," He was *definitely* out of his depth now. "I'm sorry."

Gus didn't say anything, and after a moment, he turned back to the movie. The ice seemed to be broken, however, because a minute later, Gus said, "Oh, this is my favorite part, with the turtles! He's a sea turtle, see him?"

"Wow," Justin replied, smiling, and they spent the next half an hour talking about all the different animals in the film, and what their names were, and what they were doing, and which parts Gus liked best. Just as they were getting to what Gus promised was "a really good part," Brian re-entered the room, dressed in black jeans and a black t-shirt. Justin had to look away. He hoped the light from the TV wouldn't show his blush.

"Hey, Sonnyboy, can I borrow Justin for a minute?" he asked, smiling at his son.

"Are you going to work now, Daddy?"

"In a minute, but I'll come say goodbye first, okay?"

"Okay," the boy said agreeably. Justin followed Brian into the kitchen.

"Make sure he gets a bath before bed, the kiddie shampoo and everything is in there. Gus can do it pretty much by himself, but he needs help with turning on the water. Lights out is at nine, and make sure he puts his pajamas on. He has this thing lately where he wants to sleep naked," Brian said, gathering up his things from the kitchen counter, not really looking at Justin.

"Right," Justin said. "Are there any telephone numbers I should have?"

"My cell number's on the fridge, and Debbie's number. If you can't reach me, for some reason, give her a call, she'll come right over."

"Okay. Do you have a work number?"

Brian looked at him, and Justin had the feeling that he was missing something. "No," Brian said, "Just the cell. But I'll have it with me, so you should be able to reach me if there's a problem."

"Sounds good." Justin was feeling awkward again, which was weird. Normally he was good at connecting to parents, talking to them. But the combination of Brian's reticence and the way his legs looked in those jeans was preventing Justin from having a real conversation with him.

"Feel free to help yourself to anything in the fridge, and again, I'll definitely be home by five, so you can leave whenever you need to in the morning."

"Thanks," Justin said, unable to come up with anything better.

"Any questions," Brian asked, tucking his wallet in his back pocket and checking his cell phone.

"Bath, bed by nine, you'll be home by five, numbers on the fridge. I think I'm set," Justin said, offering Brian a smile.

"Good," Brian replied, smirking a little. They both looked at each other and paused a little. Justin could feel his heart rate quicken a little at having Brian's gaze fixed on him. Oh, man, was he in trouble. He absolutely could *not* afford to get a crush on his new boss.

Luckily for Justin, Brian just cleared his throat, looked away, and went over to the couch.

"Hey, Gus, I have to leave now," he said.

Gus stood up on the couch and turned around to give Brian a hug. "Will you be home to say goodnight?"

"I'm afraid not. Justin will have to say goodnight to you for me. But when I get home I'll come look in on you and say goodnight then, okay?" Brian squeezed him tight for a second, then let go.

"Okay. Give me a kiss," the little boy demanded. Brian leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"I'll see you in the morning, Gus. Be good for Justin."

"I will." Gus sat back down and Brian ruffled his hair. Then Brian was gone, the door shut, and Gus and Justin were alone on the couch again with the sound of the Disney movie going in the background.


	3. The Nanny

Bath time was not going well.

"Gus," Justin called through the door. He waited. No response. "Are you doing okay in there?"

"Yes." Well, that wasn't very informative. Gus had refused to enter the bathroom unless he could go by himself. Justin figured it was better to let him go in alone than spend all night arguing about it. But in the last five minutes Justin had been standing out in the hall, he hadn't heard any noise from the bathroom.

"Gus, can I come in?"

"No, stay out there," the little boy protested.

Justin tapped his fingers and shifted a little. "Gus," he repeated.

"I'm fine!"

It was clearly time for desperate measures. Justin pulled out his last resort--reason. "Gus, will you let me help you?"

"I don't need help."

"Okay, then I won't help you, alright?"

"Okay."

"Alright, I'm just going to come in, but I won't help you." Justin didn't give him a chance to come up with a counterargument to this. He opened the door.

Gus was sitting, fully-clothed, on the bathroom floor. He seemed to have taken every bottle of the bathtub rim, and set them all on the floor around him. Nearly a dozen, conditioners, bodywashes, and who knows what else sat in a semi-circle around him. Justin had the fleeting thought that if he hadn't already known Brian was gay, the fact that his bathroom contained no less than three types of shower gel would have been a dead giveaway.

"What are you doing, Gus?"

"Getting ready to take a bath. I'm looking at all the shampoos."

"Which one is yours?" Justin asked, even though he would have bet that Brian didn't use Johnson and Johnson's Baby Shampoo.

"This one," Gus said, pointing to the orange bottle.

"Okay." Justin said. "Why don't I turn the water on while you get your clothes off?"

"No! I can do it." Gus said, indignant. "You said you wouldn't help."

"Okay, why don't you turn on the water, and then undress. Now, please," Justin said firmly.

"Fine," Gus replied, reluctantly. He stared at the taps.

Justin tried not to roll his eyes. "Hot is left, cold is right."

"I know."

"Okay." Justin could wait. Gus fiddled with the taps some more.

"I've decided."

"What did you decide?"

"You turn on the bathtub and I'm going to get undressed," Gus said with an air of finality.

"Okay, boss," Justin smiled.

Once they'd gotten over the water-turning-on problem, the bath went smoothly. Gus even decided that Justin could help him wash his hair.

Justin had anticipated a battle over pyjamas, given what Brian had told him. But after his bath, Gus just trundled off to his room, wrapped in his towel, and got right into them.

"Cool pyjamas," Justin told him from the doorway, smiling at the yellow Captain Astro set Gus was wearing. 

"Yeah," Gus said, enthusiastically. Justin was getting the feeling that Gus was enthusiastic about a lot of things. "Read me a story," Gus demanded.

"Okay, which one?"

"This one," Gus handed him a worn, obviously hand-me-down Dr. Seuss book.

"Awesome." Justin was a big Dr. Seuss fan. He turned out the lights except for the little lamp he found next to the bed. Gus climbed in under the covers and Justin tucked him in. Justin started reading, enjoying the colorful tale. By the time he was done, Gus was asleep.

Justin stretched in the hallway, then shut the door quietly. That hadn't been so bad, for the first night.

Justin heard a beeping coming from down the hall. His phone! He rushed into the kitchen, not wanting the stupid ring tone to wake up Gus.

"Hello?"

"What's up?"

"Hey, Daphne," Justin said grinning. Daphne had sworn to call him that night to get any new details about his hot new boss.

"So?" She asked, drawing out the syllable.

 

"So what?" He asked, teasing.

"C'mon, I'm dying here. What's the news? What's he like?"

"I already told you all about him. He didn't change overnight."

"Oh, you're no fun," Daphne sighed. "Fine, then tell me about the job."

"It's cool, I think it's really going to be good. And Gus is funny, and smart as Hell."

"Well, he has to be better than Andy and Janet." Daphne had heard all his stories about the two kids he'd nannied for all summer.

"Yeah, no shit," he laughed. "With Gus, I'm mostly just worried about keeping up with him. I think he might be smarter than me." Justin hunted around in the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat. He didn't find much.

"Well, that's not saying much."

"Ha ha," Justin said dryly. "How's your night going?"

"Oh, thrilling. CSI is coming on in ten minutes. And I think there's some Doritos left."

"Stop, you're making me wild with envy."

"I know," she said smilingly.

"Well, at least you have Doritos," he told her, finding hardly anything edible in the Kitchen except some cereal. "Brian told me I was welcome to anything in the kitchen, but it turns out there's pretty much nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Well, I found some kinda stale Cheerios." He got out a bowl and spoon, switching the phone to his other ear.

"Gross."

"I wonder what he feed that kid?"

"Maybe it's his grocery day. Y'know. At midnight, or something."

"Yeah, or something." Justin started eating.

"Yuck, don't eat while you're on the phone with me."

"Sorry," Justin said with his mouth full.

"So what are you going to *do* for the whole night?"

"Hmm," Justin swallowed his mouthful. "I brought all my school stuff, I'm going to go through all my forms and sort out my schedule."

"Then what?"

"Dunno. Watch TV I guess. Then go to bed so I can get up early and get stuff done. I can leave early."

"And you're working every night of the week," she asked doubtfully.

"Except Wednesdays and Sundays."

"That's going to put a dent in your social schedule."

"Tell me about it. But it's such a good job. Where else am I going to find something that will pay full-time and I get to spend half of it sleeping?"

"That's true. God, that's a good deal."

"I know," he said smugly. "We'll just have to party extra hard on Wednesdays."

Daphne laughed, and told him all about the wild mid-week bar nights they'd have. It wouldn't be so crowded, she reasoned, and all the clubs would be having drink specials to try and lure in customers.

"It's actually an advantage," she concluded.

"Sure," He laughed. "Thanks, Daph."

"Uh-huh. Look, I'm gonna go, CSI is coming on, and I haven't seen this one."

"You were serious about that?" Justin was definitely going to tease her about that later.

"Totally. Bye." She hung up.

"Goodbye," he said indignantly to no one. He had been dumped for dead bodies. He shrugged and ate his Cheerios.

After washing out bowl in the sink, Justin got out his backpack and spread his papers out on the table. He couldn't believe he was going to art school in a week. It hadn't been so long ago he thought he wouldn't be able to go at all.

No matter how exciting the prospect of classes was, however, he could only spend so long poring over the student handbook. After a few minutes he sighed and looked at his watch. It was barely after nine. What *was* he going to do?

He got up and looked around. It really was a nice place. Hardwood floors, expensive furniture. The kitchen looked like it wasn't used much, but it was elegant. Aside from the toy chest in the corner the fact that the two lower shelves were full of kids books, there wasn't much evidence that Gus lived here. It was much more like a bachelor pad.

The kitchen, living room, and dining room were all one big room, with the bedrooms and bathroom off of the hall. Justin walked around, looking (not snooping) at the books and videos on the shelves next to the entertainment center. Brian had quite a collection of old movies and surprisingly eclectic taste in books.

It was all clean, however. Justin ran his finger over the dustless top of a bookcase, noticing the framed photos resting on it. About half were of Gus at various ages, which made Justin smile. In several of them, Gus was held by one or both of two women, one blonde and one brunette. Gus's moms, Justin assumed, and wished he could ask.

Justin was looking through the books on the eye-level shelves, trying to pick out something to read, when he stopped short and blushed. He doubted that Brian intended his son to read "Best Gay Erotica 2003." Maybe it was accidentally left there. Or maybe Brian just thought it was just normal reading material. Justin scanned the rest of the books. Nope. No other porn was in evidence.

Justin took it off the shelf and scanned the table of contents. Very interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

  
Author's notes: Score! Less than three years between updates. I'm speedy.   


* * *

Justin woke up bleary. He always got confused waking up in a strange place. It was dark in the room with a faint light from the hallway illuminating the wall in front of him. He craned his head around to see the shadowy outline of Brian bending over Gus’s bed with his hand stroking the sleeping boy’s hair. Justin wondered how long he’d been like that.

Brian turned and looked at him. Justin couldn’t read his expression.

“Uhm, goodmorning,” Justin said, still foggy from sleep.

“It’s six,” Brian said quietly, not moving from Gus’s side.

Justin regretfully turned down the covers—he had considered asking Brian where he’d gotten the duvet, but realized he’d never be able to afford it without selling an organ—and sat up. “Okay, I’m gonna get going.”

“There’s breakfast on the kitchen table.”

“Thanks.” Justin waited, but Brian just turned back to looking at Gus. Well, then.

He picked up his bag from by the bed and his cell phone from the table. He felt gross from sleeping in his clothes, he’d have to plan better in the future. He was starting to realize what spending almost every night away from home would mean—he didn’t really want to be doing his best walk of shame impression every morning leaving Brian’s place. ‘At least, not without having anything to be ashamed *about*,’ he couldn’t help but think regretfully, eyeing Brian as he slipped out of the bedroom.

A quick trip to the bathroom left him feeling a little more human. And his stomach informed him that he definitely needed breakfast . . . though if it was just more stale Cheerios, his stomach could forget it.

Instead, sitting on the kitchen table was a styrofoam container. Justin opened it to find scrambled eggs and three pancakes. The smell made his mouth water. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a real, cooked breakfast. It had been mostly pop tarts and cereal when he had time. His mom had used to cook breakfast when he was a kid, but it had been years. He wondered if he was supposed to eat the whole thing. Briefly he thought of asking Brian, but no way could he go in there and interrupt him with his son to ask about breakfast.

When he looked in the fridge to get water, he saw two more containers just like it. A quick peek revealed one holding chocolate chip pancakes and one what appeared to be an egg-white omelet. He could figure out who those were for, at least.

He looked at the table again. There was a paper napkin and a plastic fork sitting next to it. Brian must have picked up an extra breakfast for him to take. That was actually, well, kind of sweet. And somewhat confusing. Why would Brian be so distant and off-putting, then go out of his way to make—well, okay, buy—Justin breakfast?

Well, he might never understand his employer, but if Brian was going to feed him, Justin wasn’t about to argue.

Just about to head out with his breakfast in hand, Justin cursed under his breath when he saw the erotica book sitting on the coffee table in plain sight. Praying Brian hadn’t noticed, he grabbed it—hide the evidence! He couldn’t put it back, Brian might see him at the bookshelf from the hall. Feeling like a total moron, he stuffed it in his bag and made a beeline for the door.

He had ended up jerking off in the bathroom last night after reading one of those stories. He hoped at least he hadn’t left any evidence of *that* behind.

What a great end to his first day of work, embarrassing himself and stealing from his employer. Justin mentally berated himself as he ate his breakfast on the bus. Between jerking off on the job, being awkward with Brian, leaving the book out, and now taking it, he wasn’t winning any nanny of the year awards so far. He wanted Brian to have a good opinion of him. And if here were being totally honest, it wasn’t just because he was Justin’s employer.

Yeah, that not-getting-a-crush-on-his-boss thing had gone *really* well.


End file.
